In the Museum of Art
by chisscientist
Summary: During a class field trip to the art museum, a young Thrawn uncovers information about the origins of the Chiss - and drives his teachers and the museum staff up the wall by disobeying almost every rule in the book.
1. The Joy of Art

Disclaimer: Thrawn and the Chiss belong to Timothy Zahn, while Star Wars belongs to George Lucas. I am merely playing with their creation and make no money whatever while doing so.

A/N: Thrawve (Mitth'raw'verian) is what Thrawn's name might have been before he was adopted into House Nuruodo.

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Thrawve craned his neck as he waited to get into the art museum with the rest of his class. There was an exhibition of Csillan landscape paintings on, which should be very interesting. Chavik's head was blocking most of his view of a really interesting painting. The line was moving, but terribly slowly, or so it seemed to Thrawve. He turned his attention back to the painting. It was hard to get any idea what the painter was trying to express when you could only see half of it. But it could be worse - at least there was an interesting painting to look at. Meanwhile, the line crept onwards.

Finally, Thrawve was through the turnstile and he was free! Or so he thought... but they called him back and announced that they were going to go in groups of ten with an adult. How annoying. Obediently, Thrawve joined a group and they began to walk around looking at the artwork. Whenever he found anything especially interesting they invariably hauled him away before he had time to so much as finish reading the accompanying information. Then Sseril started whining that she had to go to the bathroom, so they all had to go with her and wait.

Back to the artwork. They seemed to be going even faster now, and some of the kids were barely glancing at each painting before rushing off to the next. Thrawve sighed and gave up on the idea of actually getting time to appreciate each painting. He should have known better than to expect the other kids to do things like his mother did. After all, she was an artist and an adult, and they were kids. Sculptures, portraits, and landscapes rushed past as they made their noisy way through the museum. Some of the adults turned to glare at them when Chavik and Teran began making rude gestures at a painting of a woman rising from a bath. Thrawve snickered as the teacher yelled at them before dragging them away to look at more landscape paintings. Thrawve went with them, and then stopped, catching a glimpse of something utterly fascinating from the corner of his eye. He sidled past the teacher and wandered over.

This was not Csillan, nor was it made by any Chiss. None of the shorter wavelength colours were used, and some of the colours that were used seemed - odd. Thrawve had a suspicion he wasn't seeing what the artist had seen when he made it. Could it be that the artist was an alien and could not see ultraviolet? And perhaps was using red? He fumbled in his backpack for the special viewer his mother had lent him which made red visible. Granted, it wouldn't look like red looked to someone who could see red, but at least it made the colour visible and let you know that it was there. He trained the viewer on the mask that leapt out from the painting's center. It was covered in vertical red stripes!

A hand gripped his shoulder and shook him slightly. "Thrawve, it's time to move on."

"But this is fascinating!" Thrawve protested. "It's made by aliens who can see longer wavelengths than we do. Please let me stay just five more minutes?"

"We've got to move on, and we are supposed to be looking at the landscape exhibits, not masks made by uncouth aliens. Come on."

Thrawve followed, but inside he was bitterly furious. He'd never been to this museum before in a city several hours from home, and the main exhibits would be gone in another two weeks. He'd never get to see them again. And he hadn't seen them, not properly. It was cruel to open new vistas onto wonderful things and then slam the door shut before he had a proper look. Couldn't they see what they were missing?

He couldn't go. They had to be a way for him to stay. He looked up at the face of their teacher. Kress'sil'vren would never allow it. But perhaps there was another way... they always counted children on field trips just before they left. If he wasn't with them when they did the count, they would stay and search for him and he would get in a lot of trouble, but if he slipped away after they counted he might be able to get away with it.

They probably wouldn't figure out he was missing until they got back to school. He had money with him, and the shuttlecar station was only two blocks from the art museum. It would take him back to his own city, and it wouldn't be too hard to get home from there. The school would be upset but his mother would forgive him. _'Tis easier to get forgiveness, than to gain permission, _he thought. Dr. Chaf'frils'abosen was a very wise lady sometimes.

Thrawve followed obediently as they made their way over to the exit and the frazzled adults started counting children. Thrawve made sure they counted him as he stayed near the edge of the group. When the adults turned their faces towards the exit by the turnstile he slipped between two strange adults and then behind one of the columns. He waited until the sound of chattering children's voices had gone. He walked out and back into the museum, where treasure awaited those who bothered to look.

He found the mask again without too much trouble and had a good, long look at it. Then he went and wondered around the exhibits, taking as long as he wanted. About half an hour later, he spotted something interesting.

There was a series of several related pieces of artwork that the written information said were luminous and ought to be viewed in low light conditions. The trouble was, it was sitting out in the brightly lit main corridor. No luminosity whatsoever could be seen. _Now if I could only stay here after the lights are turned out I bet that would look amazing_, thought Thrawve. _Why can't I do that? I'd have to hide somewhere, but I'm in trouble already so I might as well get as much out of it as possible._

_Now where can I hide? I am small enough I can fit in places an adult would never get into. If I want to stay that long, I will need to hide well because the school will call the museum and they will be looking for me. I'll get hungry, so I'd better go to the cafeteria and get something now._

Thrawve lined up to pay for a drink and sandwich in the cafeteria. The cashier looked a little startled and amused to see him all by himself, but stopped worrying when he produced the required money. Thrawve put the plastic wrapped sandwich and juice into his backpack. Then he went back to exploring the museum. This time, however, he was also looking for hiding spots.

There were several possibilities that that looked good, but the best was behind an air duct cover that had come loose. It was under a table too, so it was easy to get into and out of for him while being out of sight of adults. But he didn't want to get into it yet. There was still so much to see that would be better seen with the lights on. Thrawve hadn't brought a flashlight except the little one on his keychain and it wouldn't show the artwork off properly. He lingered almost too long.

The loudspeaker spoke "would Thrave please come to the front desk immediately; your school is looking for you."

Thrawve was three corridors away from the air duct by that point. He needed to get back there and into the duct and without arousing suspicion. Thrawve began to stroll in that direction looking as unconcerned as he could manage. No one more than glanced at him incuriously before looking back at the artwork until he was just outside the room. "Hello" said a voice behind him. Thrawve turned.

"Yes?" Thrawve replied.

"Are you that Theeve kid they're looking for?" The adult asked.

"Never heard of him," said Thrawve. "Sorry," and walked on past. _ Thanks be for loudspeaker systems that garble instead of communicate... I didn't even have to lie. That is good. My mom gets really mad when I do that._

Into the room, under the table, and into the duct. He closed the cover loosely behind him. Thrawve crawled back a little ways until he couldn't be seen from the entrance.

The loudspeaker repeated its request twice more with increasing emphasis. Then it went silent. Someone walked through the room calling "Thrawve", but Thrawve didn't answer and didn't come out. Instead, he ate a sandwich and drank his juice. The museum emptied, and people went home. The lights went out.

Thrawve waited some minutes and then crawled out. He held the red viewer to his eyes and looked around. Just as he had expected, there were lines of red laser light crossing the room at three heights at various points in the room. The top two were too high for him to care about, but the lower one was going to be awkward. He'd have to crawl underneath. He walked across the room, crawling under the lower light beams as necessary.

Thrawve walked through the darkened galleries until he came to the luminous sculptures. They were indeed luminous; shining in multiple patterns that had been completely invisible in the daylight. Carefully, he crawled under the last set of lasers, which was sited inconveniently close to one of the main sculptures.

They was so much more interesting in the dark. The colored lights made patterns of lines around the largest sculpture. The lights were embedded in the sculpture very carefully; Thrawve remembered that their location had been completely invisible while the building had been lit. They looked like writing, but it wasn't any writing he had ever seen before. Intrigued, he stepped closer. Could it be an alien script? But the inscription had not said the sculpture was alien. He went around to the other side to look for the information on the plaque beneath.

The plaque said it was Chiss, but the script was not Cheunh standard, which had been the standard from before the founding of the Ascendancy! He read the inscription again. It was a completely different writing system from any he had ever run across before. It didn't look like an ancestor of the current script for Cheunh. The sculpture was not of low technology. It depicted ships and what looked like a space station but they were of such an odd design Thrawve hadn't recognized them as being Chiss. The luminosity of the sculpture - for it to have lasted many thousands of years suggested whoever made it knew their technology.

Something else occurred to him: could the Chiss have been space faring before and then lost it - perhaps they came to Csilla from somewhere else? But if they had come from somewhere else, where have they come from? And were there other Chiss out there beyond the Ascendancy? And if any of this were true, why had no one told him?


	2. Poking at Mysteries

To my reviewers who were not signed in: Yes, I seem to have returned to the Star Wars fandom, although I do plan to continue writing some silmarillion fan fiction as well. I think the portrait of a woman rising from a bath is real somewhere, although the lady in this universe's painting doesn't have blue skin and red eyes. The mask with red stripes is based on an artifact by one of the native groups in coastal BC. I don't remember which group, but I do remember the mask being stunningly beautiful and worth a million dollars or more by itself. I'm glad you enjoyed the story, and thank you for the feedback.  


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**Chapter Two: Poking at Mysteries**

"Halt," cried a voice, and Thrawve was suddenly illuminated by a powerful flashlight. "Don't move or I'll shoot."

Thrawve halted. The main lights came on after after a couple of seconds, and he could see that he was being held up by a museum guard with a Charric pistol. Surely they weren't going to shoot him!

The guard gave an exasperated sigh and lowered his weapon. "Just what are you doing in here, child? I almost shot you for a thief."

Thrawve widened his eyes to look as young and innocent as possible and made his voice quiver a bit as he said "I just wanted to look at the artwork in the dark - it said it was luminous..."

"Do you have any idea how many people were searching for you this afternoon? Your parents are probably worried sick about you, and do you even care?" The guard said. "You are a spoiled little brat."

"My mom is an artist too," Thrawve said, trying to explain, but the guard wasn't listening.

He grabbed Thrawve's arm and hauled him out of the room, speaking into his com unit as he did so. "I have found the missing child. Would you please contact the school?"

"And my mother," Thrawve added. "I don't want her to worry."

"I'd imagine it's a little late for that, child. What is her number?"

"2:1:2:0:0:1," Thrawve answered.

The guard dialed one-handed, still holding on to Thrawve with the other. Thrawve wished the guard would let go. He'd seen what he'd come to see and there was no point in running away. The guard didn't need to hold that hard, either.

The school was called, and then his mother. Thrawve listened with a sinking feeling: "Mitth'ris'akio, your son has been found. He's safe and sound, I've got him right here." The guard listened for a moment, frowning, "Yes, I can keep him here until you come and get him. Does he do this often? Wandering around the museum in the dark is really rather serious. Yes, he said he wanted to look at the artwork, but with the recent thefts all the guards are jumpy and he could get shot by mistake, not to mention that we could press charges of trespassing against him. Yes, I know he's years underage but unless you or the school can keep closer track of him he is going to get into major trouble. I'll keep control of him until you get here."

The guard muttered something under his breath that might have concerned confounded nuisances and then looked down at Thrawve. "Well, I have to to continue doing my job until your mother gets here, so you're going to have to come sit with me while I monitor the safety of the artworks." He began to walk back towards the door, pulling Thrawve along with him.

He frowned then, and said "You do understand why you shouldn't do this?"

"Yes," said Thrawve. "I might get shot by guards with Charrics mistaking me for a thief, and disappearing without telling people where I am upsets my mother."

"You seem a smart child," the guard said. "Why did you do this?"

"The artwork said it was supposed to be seen in the dark, and I couldn't do that during the day. Also, the original reason I stayed in the museum is that I couldn't get a good view of the artworks with the other kids running around like mad things and the teachers herding us from painting to sculpture to the next painting before there was a chance to so much as read the information. I want to be an artist when I grow up, and this is fascinating stuff I've never seen before - some of which is moving off-planet in the next few weeks and I'll never get the chance to see it again."

"So, you want to be an artist. You do realize how difficult it is to actually make money doing that?"

"Yes," said Thrawve. "But if you're good it's doable. My mother does it - although my dad's military salary does help."

"Hum. If you want to be an artist, it's probably better not to start off by antagonizing art museum staff," he said.

Thrawve almost stopped, startled. He hadn't thought of that. "Yes," he said, "you're right. I hadn't thought of that. Thank you, I will be more careful in future."

They turned into another corridor and came to a door which opened to the guard's touch. "This is where we keep track of the art," he said. "Those monitors up there show us each room of the galleries, and that monitor there sounds an alarm if anything goes through the red laser beams."

"That's what I tripped, isn't it?" Thrawve said. "I got so distracted by the artwork I forgot to look for those."

"You knew about them? How did you intend to avoid them?"

"I have a red viewer," Thrawve said, holding it up. "It is for looking at alien artifacts that have red in them, but it also shows red laser beams up nicely. My mother let me borrow it."

The guard held out his hand for the instrument. Thrawve handed it over and the guard put it to his eyes and looked though it for a few moments before handing it back to Thrawve. "Of all the confounded..." he said, shaking his head. "Where did you hide during the rest of the day?"

"In the air ventilation duct under the table in room 17B. The cover is loose and had fallen off. An adult wouldn't fit there, but it fit me just fine."

"I'd better write that down so I can fix it," the guard said, scribbling something on a piece of paper. "Are there any other security breaches I should know about?

Thrawve frowned, and then shook his head. "Not that I know of," he said.

"Well, I have to go back to work. Why don't you sit here," he indicated another chair at the high table in front of them. Thrawve scrambled up onto it. His feet dangled well above the floor, and he kicked them idly against the chair legs as he looked around and watched the guard watch the instruments. Thrawve was quiet for some minutes. However, it was soon apparent to him that this was a fairly boring and not very demanding job. Perhaps the guard wouldn't mind if he asked a few questions. It was worth a try in any case.

"The piece of art that I was looking at..." Thrawve watched the guard until he was sure that he was being paid attention to and then continued. "The information said it was Chiss, but the writing wasn't Cheunh standard or anything remotely related. The sculpture was of a space station and ships, so it can't have been from before we got into space. Did the Chiss come from somewhere else?"

"From somewhere else?", said the guard, looking away from the instruments to frown at Thrawve. "You mean we didn't evolve here."

"Yes. Those artworks make me wonder if we came from somewhere else. Also, we like much higher temperatures in our homes than this planet usually offers. Why are we like that if we evolved here?"

"For that last, the planet's been getting colder for centuries at least. It wasn't glaciated until 7,000 years ago, so our temperature preferences make sense. As for the other, I've never really thought about it. Don't know about you, but Csilla's a good enough home world for me. If we did come from somewhere else, it's long lost in the depths of time."

"I was just wondering," said Thrawve. "Because if we did come from somewhere else, then are there more Chiss out there? Or something like Chiss that we evolved from?"

"I think you need to ask a historian, child. I'm getting out of my depth here. And I really need to pay more attention to the monitors."

"OK, I'll be quiet," said Thrawve. And he was. He watched in silence as the guard did his duty of watching and occasionally poking things in silence before the guard eventually spoke.

"You're a funny kid. Wildly disobedient one moment and polite as one could wish the next."

"I think too much, or that's what my big brother says."

"Older brothers always have to find something to complain about. I have three of them, so I should know."

They fell silent again. Half an hour later, Thrawve's mother turned up.


	3. Consequences

Chapter Three: Consequences

Thrawve and the guard went to the main museum entrance to meet his mother. Thrawve ran up to her and hugged her. "Mum!" he said.

"You are the living end," his mother said. "What possessed you to go off like that?" She held him back a moment and studied him before relenting and hugging him. "At least you haven't hurt yourself." She looked over at the guard. "I'm sorry you had to deal with this," she said. "Thrawve's a good kid, but he attracts very strange sorts of trouble - he gets enthusiasms and doesn't know when to stop."

"Just see that he doesn't do it again," the guard said, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Actually, what he told be about how he did it is going to help us patch a couple of holes in our security."

"Really?" said Thrisa interest.

"I'm sure he'll tell you all the details," the guard said. "Do be sure he doesn't do it again," the guard says. "I don't want him getting hurt, and we really can't have children wandering around here in the middle of the night."

"I shall see to it that you are not troubled by him again," she said.

"Well, the best of luck, and goodnight to you, or perhaps I should say good morning."

"That is not for another hour yet I think," she said. "But in any case, thank you for looking after him."

Thrawve left the museum holding his mother's hand. He was silent for most of the long train journey home as he was very tired. Shortly before the end of the train journey, his mother woke him.

"Wake up, Thrawve," she said. "We will be home soon, and we need to talk. What you did is not acceptable. While I'm certain school will have a punishment for you, I cannot let this pass either. I imagine you used my red viewer to help you see the lines in the museum." She waited until Thrawve nodded. "You can't borrow it anymore."

Thrawve nodded again. He had a sort of expected that, but if he saved up his pocket money for the next month and volunteered for a few extra chores, he would be able to afford one of his own.

"In addition, you are going to apologize to the school and the museum in writing." Thrawve nodded again. He had been planning to do that anyway from the moment he'd decided on the wild escapade in the first place. "You are are also banned from my art studio for the next tenday, and I'm confiscating your sketchbook for the same amount of time."

That seemed a little excessive to Thrawve, and he tried to argue, but she just smiled and said that if he didn't like it he shouldn't have done it. Thrawve sighed and stopped arguing. It was only later he realized that if he'd made more fuss about the earlier punishments she might not have taken his sketchbook, since she trying to find something harsh enough to make sure he didn't do anything similar in future.

Over the next week, as he duly served his punishments, he thought about the mysterious artwork he'd seen. He tried looking it up on the computer systems at school. He found the artwork, but only as seen under lights and with the exact same information he'd seen at the museum. He also looked up early Chiss history, but the standard story was that the Chiss had evolved on Csilla. There were even studies of genetic relatedness between the Chiss and several other animals. It certainly looked like Chiss, cats, mice and other Csillan mammals had evolved from the same stock, but Thrawve couldn't help feeling that something was wrong with this picture. That artwork could not be what they said it was... As the months passed, he pushed the mystery to the back of his mind, but he never quite forgot. He promised himself that one day he would find out the whole truth.

The End... of this particular story.

A note on naming: From the (rather scanty) evidence available, I've decided to make the first portion of the name indicate blood family. The middle part is individual, and the last part is individual unless you are part of a registered Family. Merit adoptives do not adopt the name of their Family unless they have been Trial-born, which is rarer and of higher status. This is the only reason I could figure out for Thrawn being 'nuruodo and Thrass not when they are in the same Family. It also explains why Feesa and Formbi have the Chaf at the beginning of their names rather than at the end: they were born into the Chaf Family. Otherwise the Chiss naming system makes no sense whatever.

I also decided that the family name is generally passed down through the female line, since maternity is more certain than paternity, and to get away from our own society's standard.


End file.
